Roof shingles are difficult to remove from an existing roof. The shingle nails are also very difficult to remove.
Conventionally, roofers employ a shovel-like prying hand tool which is inserted beneath a shingle or nail. The tool is pivoted to raise the shingle and the nails. This is a very difficult and time-consuming process. It is therefore desirable to provide a power operated roof stripping device that eases the labor-intensive task of stripping shingles from a roof.
Some power operated roof striping devices are known in the prior art. These include U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,946 which issued Mar. 26, 1991 to the present inventors; U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,995 which issued May 12, 1987 to Frank M. Amundson; Herbert C. Manners; and Paul M. Jeffries; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,547 which issued Aug. 16, 1988 to John H. Dike, Jr.
In our previous invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,946 we described a pneumatic lifting/prying tool that, while fully capable of stripping shingles off of a roof, suffered from several drawbacks. One of these drawbacks is that when the device was used, the stripped shingles would continue past the lifting blade and fall back down onto the newly stripped roof section. This results in the user having to clear away these stripped shingles to reach the next section of shingles and may result in the user getting injured by either tripping over the stripped shingles or by stepping on a removed nail. Another drawback is that the device is relatively heavy and must be carried by a user around the rooftop. Further, the pivot point on the bottom the lifting plate wears down during repeated use.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved roof shingle stripping apparatus that overcomes these and other drawbacks.